2000 +healing

My druid reached 2000 +healing last night after finally getting 150 badges for her mace. Now I'm sitting comfortably about 2024 +healing... another goal reached!

So far my druid, mage, and shadow priest have all reached their goals. Gotta work on my warrior, paladin, and holy priest now :)

Druid is at 2k healing and both my mage and shadow priest are over 1000 damage (actually they are over 1100, and the priest is approaching 1200).

I'd like to reach a point where I can tank all T4 content with my warrior, +2000 heals on my priest, and T4 content for my paladin. Though I do have a shorter-range goal in mind for my paladin... uncrushable so I can start going to Karazhan with my hordeside guildies!

Now just to find out if I can transfer my epic bracers over the neutral AH without them getting stolen...

Tanking Karazhan

I main tanked Karazhan for the first time ever, on my warrior Shaeldre.

It was fun and actually not a huge ordeal! I was worried that my threat generation would be cause for issues, since sometimes I have problems in 5-mans. It actually went well! I picked up the tanking gloves from Maiden of Virtue and had a blast.

Romulo and Julianne was a problem for us. The other tank was dying, but after checking WWS (she was crushed 79 times for our successful attempt) I think that might have been the problem. Our other problems were slightly overestimating the amount of damage we did (we stopped dps on Romulo at 15%, killed Julianne, then couldn't bring him down to zero fast enough). Our successful attempt was pretty epic... it involved the Julianne dying and reviving that I just mentioned. Then I picked up Julianne again and we did the whole fight over again. It was nearly a 10 minute encounter... oh man.

Other than that though, the run went really well! If R&J had gone better we would have been able to get a few more bosses. We're going back tonight; I'm definitely not geared enough for tanking Prince though, so I'm not sure what we're going to do there. Probably cry a whole lot XD

Hitting goals

Lately my characters have been hitting or quickly approaching the numbers goals I've set for them.

Alazais, my fire mage, just reached over 1000 fire damage last night. She's sitting pretty at 1050 +fire self-buffed :) Pretty snazzy! My shadow priest has also just reached over 1000 +shadow unbuffed.

My biggest goal right now is to hit 2000 healing on my resto druid. She's at 1778 at the moment. I need new boots (from SSC or from Doom Lord Kazzak), the badge mace, ZA timed event belt, PvP season 4 neck, badge gloves, and badge pants to hit over 2k I think. My guild isn't in SSC yet, but hopefully soon!

Hitting goals really makes me feel good about the game though :) Otherwise it just feels like an endless grind...

DPS and the old raider

I wish I knew what my DPS was like when I used to raid at level 60. Back when you could still weave Aimed Shot in between attacks. I was normally in the top 5 of our 40-man raids... anywhere from #2 to #6 probably, depending on who was there. The only people who could regularly top my damage were a couple of the rogues, one of the mages, one of the warlocks, one other hunter, and our fury warrior. I still felt damn proud though since through it all I was still the only hunter sporting a piece of Tier 1 still (stupid shoulders) and the only items outside of Tier1/2 content that I got were the polearm from AQ-40 and the AQ-40 rep ring.

I do still get a bit scared that I'll enter a level 60 instance and see some noob in Outland greens out-dps me... quite possible since I took a break from my hunter for about a year. But that hasn't happened yet. Last night I did 44% of the damage in my Ramparts group... T_T #2 was the tank, and no, he wasn't a paladin.

I was also happy to see myself break 400 dps on the first boss fight and 500 dps on the last one (I missed Omor's reading). Of course, that figures in The Beast Within, but still pretty neat considering I'm level 61 and able to put out damage that equals my personal minimum requirements for Karazhan. I'm guessing that will fall a bit as the crit rating on my Dragonstalker yields less and less crit % as I level up, though.

Really looking forward to seeing how Steady Shot changes things though. It's fun being a hunter - taking on 4 mobs my level easily as opposed to my warrior when she was leveling, who would cry if she came across any more than 2 (and sometimes 2 was difficult to deal with).

Paladin tanking: A first look!

I tanked an instance for the first time since switching to Protection spec and it was... incredible! The last time I tanked an instance was Zul'farrak, and back then I was Retribution. Granted, I had some things to help me generate threat that I don't have now (Sanctity Aura and actually Vengeance helped too... haha) but the better Righteous Fury was really helpful.

Paladins are just... wow. I think I had the hunter trap twice, and only in Blood Furnace (we did Ramparts followed by Blood Furnace since Ramparts only lasted about 40 minutes). The only time I did have her trap was on some of those nasty felguard annihilator pulls at the end since I couldn't really tank them.

My pally is still a bit undergeared (a bit? I just replaced Triune Amulet with a BoE green that dropped in the instance last night) so I think I may have given our healer a run for her money sometimes, aoe tanking everything... it was great though. In both instances we only had 1 wipe (accidentally got two groups somehow) and only a couple of deaths. The only frustrating thing is if I went OOM during a pull, it became very difficult to get threat back, and of course Reckoning was no help at all with Seal/Judgment of Wisdom because I wasn't being hit anymore T_T Gotta learn to carry mana potions!

Looking forward to getting more tanking gear so I feel like a bit less of a mana hog on the healer... and definitely looking forward to tanking more instances. Maybe this is one character I can feel comfortable tanking with pugs in the group! I didn't even have to use salvation last night either so that was a huge help. People pulled aggro sometimes but it was usually in a big group where I have having some trouble targetting... I'll get used to it!

Warrior tanking

One of the things I really strive to do in WoW is play multiple classes and play them well. I don't want to be "that guy" who had one of each class but couldn't play their way out of a cardboard box with any of them.

So maybe not surprisingly, I've spent a lot of times on the forums and on elitist jerks learning about various classes. So far my greatest weakness is warrior tanking - I think I do really well in other situations (dps as various specs and classes is very easy for me, and tanking on my paladin is easy - I haven't tried to tank on my druid when it wasn't Black Morass so I can't really speak for my druid tanking skills XD, and healing is also something that comes pretty naturally to me).

I think part of my problem is I tend to group with people nowadays who outgear me. I am wearing mostly greens and blues when it comes to tanking (and the two worst trinkets IN THE WORLD). But I also hate to use that as an excuse, so I'm thinking that my next project will be to respec Shaeldre to protection and give some 5-mans a shot. Just need to pick my group members carefully (or make them be careful >:)) so I don't frustrate myself right back to Fury spec again.

I don't think Protection will ever be Shaeldre's main spec, but I still want to be in a position where I feel confident that I can handle tanking a 5-man instance so I can take pressure off my sister (the guild's main tank) and not feel like 1/3 of a warrior noob ;)

Shiawase, Blood Elf Paladin

Shiawase is my first horde character to reach 40 and my first to hit 60. (Previously I'd also had a tauren druid that I leveled up to 29, but I found myself wanting something different.) That also makes her my 7th character to hit 60 overall (after a hunter, mage, two priests, a warrior, and a druid).

At the time of writing this, Shiawase is currently level 61 and Protection spec. I'm pretty sure I'm going to stay Protection at 70 - Paladin tanking is a blast and, to me at least, much less stressful than warrior tanking.

I was Retribution with Shiawase up until level 50 - then Crusader Strike felt more like a mana hog and a Bad Thing rather than something good. I'm sure it's great if you really know how to use it, but I just felt my mana going down the drain and my downtime skyrocketing, and I was having a hard time resisting the temptation to use it - I mean, I spent a damn talent point on it after all. So I went to Protection and since then have been having a lot of fun (except for one of those scarlet camps in the Plaguelands... damn casters and healers).

Looking forward to tanking my first Outland instance soon! I always heard about how boring leveling a paladin was, but I haven't been bored since level 35. The worst part for me was about 30-34, and my gear was horribly outdated back then. I haven't found that is a trend though, because I also leveled another paladin to 35 in the past (Asuka, a holy paladin on Mannoroth). I leveled her as Holy and had fun the whole way, but also have kept fairly updated gear - at least a good weapon.

Ceres, Draenei Priest

My plan at first with Ceres was to level her to 70 and heal in raids on Mannoroth - her name back then was Voice. I leveled her with a friend of mine, Tendertotems (a Draenei shaman) but as I got higher level (between leveling her and Shaeldre on Bronzebeard) I was hearing more and more discontent amongst my guildies at level 70. I slowed down leveling and around when she was level 65 or so, my guild disbanded.

Rather than find a new home on Mannoroth, I decided to go ahead and transfer her to Bronzebeard. I'm not really 100% sure why I decided to go through with this since I already had a priest there, but it has allowed me to have one shadow priest and one holy priest on the same realm, which is kind of fun.

Last night, patch 2.4 came out. I did a run of Magister's Terrace where I got 2 DPS upgrades (sigh :P) but I also went around and bought the 5-pc blue pvp set from the reputation vendors. I'm looking forward to giving PvP a shot with some resilience.

I think I prefer Ceres as a 5-man healer, but my druid as a raid healer. I haven't completely decided yet, though. Ceres has been in Karazhan and various heroic instances and 5-mans at this point - probably more heroics than my druid. I really enjoy the ability to fade to discourage enemies, rather than just.. Barkskin and hope for the best. As far as PvP healing goes though, both characters are a total blast.

I'm really interested in going back to a PvP build (heavy disc) and trying out arena again. Last time I did 3v3 with her, it was with 2 hunters, I wasn't disc, and it was just impossible to stay alive... hoping for better next time, especially now that I have resilience! Sitting at about 171 resilience now.

Alaphrei, Night Elf Druid

Alaphrei was my fifth character to 60 and my second to 70. I have explored pretty much every spec with her - started leveling restoration (back when feral... really sucked - I basically solo'd as restoration but wearing feral gear, in feral forms).

Around 35 or so, the feral tree was reworked so I went to feral. I still ended up healing most instances, but I love healing so I didn't mind it too much. My most challenging instance to heal was Uldaman - I was level 48 but most of the group was 40, and this is back when the last boss was level 46. It was very tough going because our DPS was all missing / glancing blows / etc and frustrating, and after a few 1-2% wipes, our paladin got on his 60 hunter and got him. (Which was funny - it wasn't that much easier because he was forced into melee pretty often... but we got the boss!) I stayed feral until the Scourge Invasion (a server-wide event before Naxx came out) where I went resto to level while healing some AoEing mage friends. I gained a couple of levels like that and then went back to feral to hit 60. I was a mix of feral or restoration at 60, but went with a healing build for MC, ZG, AQ-20 and Onyxia (which I did a few times, but nothing really beyond that - this was mostly just alt/weekend runs).

2.0 came out and introduced a happily not-sucking Balance tree, so I decided to try that out and stayed that way after Burning Crusade came out, up to level 70. Nowadays I carry multiple sets of gear with me (my restoration gear is the best, followed by my balance gear, then bear gear, then cat gear - and of course I have some extra PvP or high stam pieces that I carry with me too) - most of it is in the bank at any given moment, though.

Alaphrei was transferred over to Bronzebeard around level 64 or so, and now at 70 she has become my primary raiding character since my warrior, as a not-tank and as melee dps, isn't really needed that much. Yes, I'm a lifebloom-stacking tree and proud of it ;) Alaphrei is also my only character to really explore arena, but my team was only just beginning to start to learn how to get past 1500 rating when my two team members quit the game. Arena is definitely fun though and I'm looking forward to giving it a try again in the future.

Shaeldre, Human Warrior

Shaeldre was my fourth level 60, my first to 70, and also my first character on Bronzebeard. I made her to be a part of Daughters of the Alliance, an all-female World of Warcraft guild. We formed up via the wow_ladies livejournal community (after Daughters of the Horde had already been formed earlier). First I'd actually created the warrior Aridae, but around level 25 I realized just wasn't into how she looked so I rerolled Shaeldre. (Aridae is now my bank alt.)

After leveling four characters to 60 I finally knew how to level and gain money - Shaeldre was my first character to completely afford her level 40 mount by herself (my priest, Cerelinde, was about 5g short, but very close) and she also was able to keep herself kitted out in superior quality items through 60 and buy her epic mount as soon as she hit level 60.

She's usually Fury spec, though I dip into Protection every now and then. I prefer DPS to tanking though - at least most of the time! Tanking for people who are way geared over me is just frustrating, but I can enjoy it from time to time. It's a bit too stressful for me though :)

Anyway, Shaeldre was my only character on Bronzebeard for a long time - I transferred my mage, Alazais, to join her before Burning Crusade, and then afterward transferred my remaining Mannoroth characters (except for my hunter), as well as my priest from Stormrage. I'm now an officer in Daughters of the Alliance and act as a raid leader for our raids - so far we've just done Karazhan and started Gruul's Lair, but it's really fun to raid with such a laid back group.

Shaeldre has somewhat taken to the back burner since my guild is overall in need of healers and I'm not much of a fan of tanking. I'm hoping to revive her a bit in Wrath of the Lich King though ;)

Cerelinde, Night Elf Priest

Cerelinde (once known as Voice, on the Stormrage server) was my third character to hit 60 and my first character (at least first that I actually played with any regularity) on a PvE server.

She leveled as shadow but spent the majority of her time in instances healing. At level 60 I joined a raiding guild. I cleared Molten Core, Zul'Gurub, Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, and Blackwing Lair with them. Due to big time real life issues, I stopped playing her shortly after our first clear of Blackwing Lair, but I missed her a lot, and eventually transferred her to Bronzebeard so I could level her to 70, months after Burning Crusade came out.

But Cerelinde wasn't only a raider - she also was the only character I did any extensive PvP with. Due to raiding on two characters (this one and my hunter, Ceres, on Mannoroth) as well as college and a boyfriend, I never really was able to attain a balance between these things and PvP to get my rank very high - I peaked at Knight-Captain. Regardless, I did regular Warsong Gulch matches with my team - Janson, Krysania, Yodamor, Verithas, Maix - they were only some of my team members and even though I'm now having fun with Cerelinde at 70 on a different server, I still miss you guys :) Even though I didn't play with them for months prior, leaving them was one reason I didn't transfer for so long.

On her way to 70, I mixed up shadow and holy leveling. I was doing instances with my boyfriend for a while, so stuck to Holy for maybe 5 levels, but he "officially" quit WoW (again) and I went shadow and zoomed to 70.

At 70, Cerelinde is my shadow priest, and one of my favorite characters to play in an instance. Even with pretty crap gear I can still dominate the damage meters and feel that I bring plenty of utility - healing in a pinch, shackles, and of course VE and VT. She has more or less left her PvP days behind - I prefer to heal in PvP so my resto druid and my holy priest (neither of whom I've written about just yet) are my preferred PvP characters. I still sport my "Knight Captain" rank proudly though!

Alazais, Human Mage

Alazais was my second character to level 60 - just barely. She was my first real "primary alt" though. Back when I started to level her, it was the days when you were stupid if you went to almost any instance without a mage. People just didn't know, back then, how to get around a need for aoe - and of course they had all these other snazzy perks like food and water vending.

So, I made a mage! I felt super powerful until level 50 or so. I'd planned to aoe grind my way to 60 via Dire Maul or Maraudon but both places were nerfed before I reached there, so while I quickly hit 52 or so, I slowly gained levels to 60 after that. She ended up hitting 60 while farming Timbermaw rep with a guildie hunter.

She collected dust... often. I just wasn't that into her and she felt very wimpy and pointless compared to my hunter, especially once I became a kiting and feign-death trapping pro (yeah, back then we had to feign death in order to retrap during combat, and walk uphill both ways yadda yadda). But my boyfriend after raiding for a while decided to go on a quest to collect the rest of his Wildheart set, and since my hunter didn't need anything from those instances anymore, I started going on my mage. I ended up with a very nice pre-raiding set and eventually even went to Molten Core with her.

After a while though I was realizing that she just wasn't that useful to me on Mannoroth, so I transferred her to Bronzebeard, renamed her to Alazais (she was named Alanis on Mannoroth... a reference to a young mage girl in Suikoden, NOT the popular singer) and there she has stayed.

Alazais was my third character to level 70. She's sitting at 375 tailoring and enchanting and has a pretty respectable damage set - not much +hit but I don't really intend to raid with her very much, if at all. She's an incredibly fun character for heroics though, and I'm glad that I did eventually put the effort into her and not just leave her sitting at level 50, weak and lonely ;)

Ceres, Night Elf Hunter

Eventually I might actually have something to add here for real, but I think I'll start with an overview of each of my characters in World of Warcraft.

First... my hunter. Gotta start at the beginning, right?

Ceres was first born on US-PvP Test Server 16. It was Open Beta and a mutual friend of my boyfriend and I showed us where we could get the client. We were skeptical about playing an MMORPG. There were days in high school where I would just sit down in front of the TV and play an RPG all damn day (Suikoden II comes to mind) and I was a little worried about a neverending game... and I didn't see any reason to play monthly for a game when I could buy one at a one time cost of $50.

WoW definitely captured my interest during the couple of weeks I got to play Open Beta though, so we put in the cash for pre-orders right away. Sadly we both missed the end of open beta, not realizing there would be a special event - but we already were bummed that we were losing our characters ^^;

The day of World of Warcraft's release, I got permission to miss a class I was TAing (my last class of the day) and went to the mall with my boyfriend to pick up our preordered copies of World of Warcraft. We arrived at home and he left for class while I installed the game on our two computers. I got an IM from the same friend who had gotten us into beta - "Mannoroth" it said.

Mannoroth was actually a suggested low-population PvP server (or so we thought - Mannoroth was actually bugged opening day and said "low population" all day, and suffered from this for months), but I promised I wouldn't do anything in the game until Chris got home. Longest two hours ever!

Chris wanted to play horde - I wanted to play alliance. He blames me for not being able to enjoy his first year of WoW as an overpowered Tauren shaman, but I was not the only one in our group who wanted to play alliance - I promise!

Chris arrived home and we decided to remake our characters from beta - I created "Ceres" and he recreated his druid, Blink, but Blink was already taken so he named the druid Kelsin instead.

The first day - hell, the first few weeks and even months - of WoW was fraught with server crashes and lag, but I still loved it. I played Ceres with a small group of friends and we all formed our own guild when we were in our 20s or 30s (it took ages to farm up all of that gold to get the charter). I didn't touch an alt for ages, and didn't get one over level 20 before my hunter hit 60 at the end of winter break (right at the end of January).

Ceres held a lot of firsts for me - on Ceres I learned how to play. Ceres is the character that introduced me to instancing and raiding. I learned first hand why it was stupid for a hunter to roll on a weapon with a "Chance on hit:" when I rolled against one of my rogue friends (and honestly I still feel bad about it, but no one really knew how to play back then!). I learned why it was bad to feign death when you get aggro and you aren't sure who the enemy is going to go on (I feigned onto our priest and he was not pleased, but luckily he forgave me :P)

I still clearly remember my first Onyxia raid - we got her on our 4th try. My boyfriend and I put on a wedding dress and tuxedo (in game!) and posed for a picture under her head hanging in Stormwind. There was a certain rush from downing all of the demons for the hunter epic quest line in the same morning. Pulling a core hound and also bringing a group of surgers to come play. My hunter had a lot of fun times ;)

Learning Ouro in AQ-40 - finally downing him. Helping get the first kills for the first boss in the Death Knight wing in Naxx, and Anub'rekhan. My best memories all lie with the same guild - Aegis Order / Aegis Uprising / Equilibrium. It was a raiding guild that I raided with in early 2005, but played with through the spring and some of the summer, then joined in autumn the same year. I kept that guild tag over my head until the guild disbanded.

My pet is the ever-popular King Bangalash, renamed Tasslehoff after one of my real cats. The real Tasslehoff has since passed on, and I have to admit, naming an in-game pet after a real pet has made it a very real possibility that I will never use another pet for as long as I play WoW!

I haven't really played Ceres since The Burning Crusade came out - she still hasn't hit 61, though I did finally move her to Outland. I've moved on to another server and to other classes, but I'll always remember her fondly. I do hope I'm able to get her to 70 before the next expansion! :)